GajimaruClassics.
MiddlemarchOn the coverThe Hay Wain, John Constable, 1821
Middlemarch
In a provincial English town on the eve of reform, idealistic Dorothea Brooke and ambitious young doctor Lydgate each chase a meaningful life, and run up against marriage, money, and the slow friction of a whole community. Often called the greatest English novel.
Character notes and context for the chapter you’ve read.
The wisest novel in English, it understands marriage, ambition, and self-deception better than most people understand their own lives. Slow to start, then quietly unforgettable.
SettingEnglish Midlands, 1829–32
A provincial town just before the 1832 Reform Act, when railways, new medicine, and the vote were all arriving at once, and a community watched, gossiped about, and judged every life within it.
On screen & beyond
- Acclaimed BBC series (1994)